Learning to shop...

As most of you readers know, Elizabeth and I like to be organized and have a plan for everything. So, with nothing better to do on a blazing hot Sunday afternoon, we decided to go to some stores and look at nursery furniture. Elizabeth had already looked around online and found that the "big" stores (JC Penney, Sears etc) had a good selection of cribs, dressers and changing stations, so we thought we'd go around the nearby stores and take a look at them. Of course, we forgot it was actually 2010, and the Internet has changed everything...

We went to Sears, JC Penney and Belk and couldn't find a single item of nursery furniture! not to mention that they didn't have any car seats or strollers either!

The Internet really has changed how people shop - or at least how stores make people shop. Now, there are lots of things I will buy online without seeing or touching them first - but nursery furniture (worth hundreds of dollars) is not one. I want to test how sturdy the construction is, how heavy the wood is and I want to see what the photos don't show - things like all of the uncovered screws and the sharper than normal edges.

I wonder how much business these big stores are losing by not having at least a floor model on display. Do people still buy unseen online? or do they simply not buy nursery furniture from these stores? Well, they won't be getting my business - that is for sure. After an hour of wandering around the mall, it was time to head to Babies R Us.

However, we did stop by McDonald's for an Ice Cream cone each - so it wasn't a completely wasted trip to the mall!

Now, Babies R Us is more like it! They have a wide selection of their models out for people to see and touch and we quickly were able to determine what we liked and didn't like, take some notes and even take a quick look at the rest of the store.

Of course, Babies R Us didn't have every item they stock out on display in every color possible - but they did at least have a sample of the majority of their lines for people to look at - that really is all I am asking for.

There are apparently some other stores in the area that are similar to Babies R Us and we'll be going to check those out over the next few weeks, but this first day of looking at nursery furniture certainly was eye-opening for me!